Widow sues Spirit Airlines after her husband was hurt on the job at age 88, then died

Nazem Amine was 88 years old when he suffered a hernia while working as a baggage handler at Spirit Airlines. His family is suing the airlines, claiming complications from the hernia operation led to his death in July at age 90 and the airline should be responsible for his medical bills.
Steve Pepple, Detroit Free Press

Bronze medal wrestler Nazem Amine started working at a baggage handler when he was 72 after retiring as a butcher.

Nazem Amine, a two-time Olympian wrestler and Spirit Airlines baggage handler from the age of 77 until he turned 88, in an undated family photo.(Photo: Family photo)

But to then-88-year-old Nazem Amine, a two-time Olympic wrestler who spent years hoisting thick-necked opponents in the air, hauling suitcases onto conveyor belts was second nature.

And he felt privileged doing it.

The onetime Greco-Roman wrestler could have quit working when he retired as a butcher at age 72, but instead took a job with Spirit Airlines as a baggage handler and driver. He worked full-time for $14 an hour.

It was a good gig for 16 years. Until one spring day in 2015, at 88, the gray-haired handler lifted 500 pieces of luggage in one shift, triggering a hernia that would send him downhill, according to his family. He had surgery, followed by a pneumonia, congestive heart failure, colitis, and ultimately, a heart attack, they say.

Amine, a Lebanese immigrant who competed in two Olympics, raised 10 children on a butcher's salary and spent his golden years hauling suitcases at an airport, died July 16. He was 90.

His family believes his job did him in — an issue that's now at the center of a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court, where Amine's 53-year-old widow is suing Spirit Airlines over medical bills.

In the lawsuit, Siham Amine of Dearborn claims her husband died of complications brought on by a work-related injury, and the airline has refused to pay the resulting medical bills. Relatives say the bills have reached nearly $1 million. The lawsuit is seeking an estimated $721,000 — half of which would go to Medicare; the other half to his wife.

Spirit Airlines has denied any wrongdoing in court records and is trying to get the lawsuit dismissed. At issue for the airliner is whether the hernia caused Nazem Amine's heart condition — a question that is still pending before a workers' compensation board.

In court documents, Spirit Airlines has said that Amine's medical bills relating to the hernia injury have been paid by the airliner's workers' compensation carrier. But it said the Michigan Workers Compensation Board hasn't yet ruled on whether the heart problem will be covered by workers' comp. And until it does, the airline argues, the lawsuit should be dropped.

Meanwhile, Amine's family is mourning his death and trying to draw strength from the strongest man they knew.

The 5-foot 7, 165-pound Amine was a force to be reckoned with, on the wrestling mat and in life, his children say. He was hell-bent on taking care of himself and insisted on working with his hands his entire life.

While most of his nine college-educated children pursued white-collar careers in fields like the financial services, mortgage industry and psychotherapy, Amine stuck to the meat shops. As a worker, he preferred the apron and knife to suits and ties.

And there was no convincing him to stop working. Despite numerous pleas by his children to consider retiring from the airline job, he wouldn't hear of it.

Mike Amine and his late father, Nazem Amine.(Photo: Family photo)

"He would say, 'I don't want anyone taking care of me. I want to take care of myself,' " recalled Mike Amine, Amine's 50-year-old son. "We would beg him to come and work with us. ... I tried to talk him out of (working), but he couldn't let go."

Mike Amine, who has built a successful career in the financial services industry, said his father had a strong work ethic and often held two jobs at a time. He worked holidays and long hours, even into his 80s, as he missed many Christmas celebrations because he was working at the airport.

"Not only did he work full-time, he worked overtime. And he didn't just meet and greet people. This guy actually moved 500 pieces of luggage — in a day. That's the kind of dedication he had to work," Amine said. "He was loyal to a fault."

Amine's daughter Hoda, a human rights activist and advocate for domestic violence survivors, described her father as a workaholic, very passionate and determined in anything he did.

'They did him wrong'

Nazem Amine was born in 1927 in Lebanon. He grew up in a village and worked in his father's butcher shop. Though he was rebellious in his youth, he developed a love for wrestling at the age of 16 and fed that passion vigorously.

After years of training, his hard work paid off as he landed a spot on Lebanon's Olympic wrestling team — a talent he passed on to his children. His two sons, Mike and Sam, became wrestlers — one of them an All American. So did his three grandsons, all of them wrestlers at the University of Michigan.

Grandpa was the superstar.

According to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum, and InterMat, an online wrestling publication, Amine competed in wrestling for Lebanon in the 1956 Melbourne games and the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he wrestled lightweight in the Greco-Roman competition.

According to family and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Amine received a bronze medal at the Rome Olympics.

An Olympic bronze medal won by Nazem Amine.(Photo: Family photo)

"We are saddened to hear of the passing of Nazem Amine, who competed in wrestling for Lebanon in the Olympics in 1956 and 1960, when he won a bronze medal," the National Wrestling Hall of Fame wrote on its Facebook page July 29. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."

By the time Amine competed in Rome, he was married and raising a family.

In 1967, when the Arab-Israeli war began and violence spread, Amine moved his family to Michigan, settling down in Warren and venturing into the meat plants for work. He started off at a company called Star Meat, which closed two decades later, sending him to a meat packaging and sausage-mixing company in Detroit called Peschke. He also started a deli and meat shop with his wife in Warren.

Then the Sunshine State called.

In 1979, he moved his family to Daytona Beach, Fla., and opened a restaurant. Three years later, he moved back to Michigan and opened a deli that he ran for several years. Then he flirted with retirement.

The late Nazem Amine and his first wife in an undated family photo.(Photo: Family photo)

It lasted six months. But — as his son Mike puts it — he drove his wife crazy at home, so he went to work for Kroger as a butcher.

In 1993, Amine's wife died.

A year later, he remarried. The bride was 37 years his junior, introduced to him by a family member. They had a daughter — who is now studying to become a doctor — and ran a sandwich shop for five years. With a new family to take care of, he wanted and needed to keep working.

In 1999, an opportunity to work for Spirit Airlines came along.

He went for it.

"He was a worker. He was a go-getter. He wanted to bring home a paycheck" said Bloomfield Hills attorney Bryan Schefman, who filed the lawsuit against Spirit Airlines in January, while Amine was still alive.

Schefman maintains that Amine was fit when he took the job with Spirit Airlines and disputes any claims by the airliner that he had a pre-existing heart condition.

"Any guy who is 88 years old and can lift 500 bags seems to be in pretty good health," Schefman said, arguing it was the emergency hernia surgery that caused the downward spiral.

"He died from secondary complications relating to the complete meltdown of his physical status," Schefman said. "He had become completely incapacitated."

Amine spent the last months of his life in a wheelchair. His family wants answers, his bills paid and an apology.

Some of the medals won by Nazem Amine as a Greco Roman wrestler.(Photo: Family photo)

"We got not one apology from workers' compensation or Spirit Airlines," Mike Amine said. "My dad never got to win at this. ... He never got his day in court. ... I feel like they did him wrong."

Officials with Spirit Airlines and the company's lawyer could not be reached for comment.

A taste of freedom

Amine had the good fortune of watching his love for wrestling live on in his children and grandchildren.

According to Mike Amine, the Amine family last year was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for a lifetime service award. He said his father thrived on passing along his passion for wrestling to his sons and grandsons. And he kept his skills intact for years.

"He was unbelievable. I was even afraid of him in college. He still had it in his 50s," Mike Amine recalled. "He could put the moves on you. I brought him to a high school practice one time. The young, high-energy kids wanted to take him on — and he threw them around."

Wrestling aside, Amine was also passionate about his country and family.

"He loved life and believed the sky is the limit as long as you can breathe," said Hoda Amine, 63, of Dearborn Heights. "He was very hard on himself as well as on us. He expected anything but the best from us."

Mike Amine said his father was humble and generous — packing extra lunches for coworkers who might have forgotten theirs, or loaning money to folks who needed it and not asking for it back. His priorities were God, country and family.

"My dad got a taste of America and freedom," Amine said. "And in his heart, soul and mind, he wanted to live and bring his family up in America."